Need to Know | Week 20: Blue Bombers at Elks

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers had just completed their first practice of the week at a chilly and windswept Fort Garry Lions Field when Mike O'Shea was presented with an icebreaker question near the start of his media session.

What's going to be the hardest thing, the Blue Bombers head coach was asked, about playing in Edmonton?

"I don't think it's ever about where we're playing or who we're playing," O'Shea began, in helping set up this Friday's date in the Alberta capital against the Elks. "This year the biggest challenge is just us being consistent. That's really about internalizing rather than anything external about where the problems may lie."

That inconsistency, in short, is the best descriptor of this Blue Bombers team through 16 games and its 8-8 record and it was never more evident than in the last couple of weeks with last Saturday's solid 33-28 victory over the Calgary Stampeders coming one week after they were thumped 37-10 in Montreal by the Alouettes.

Consider this, too: the Blue Bombers were 4-2 after the first third of the season and since then have been consistently inconsistent. Only once this year has the club won more than two games in a row, with a three-game winning streak in July.

There have been brilliant flashes followed by dark stretches.

"Every year is different," said O'Shea, "but this one has been a little... odd."

And when Paul Friesen of The Winnipeg Sun-Tribune followed with, "Can you put your finger on it yet?" O'Shea just grinned and added: "Soon."

Yup, soon would be good with just two games remaining and the Blue Bombers in an epic three-team dogfight for two playoff spots in the CFL's West Division. Winnipeg and Saskatchewan are now 8-8, with Calgary 8-9 after the weekend, with the Blue Bombers holding the tiebreaker with both the Roughriders and Stampeders and in the event of a three-team tie, which is still a possibility.

In that case, the CFL's tiebreaker formula is head-to-head records in games against the three teams, with the Blue Bombers 3-2, Saskatchewan 2-2 and Calgary 2-3 and with those teams having finished playing each other this season.

One more from O'Shea, who was asked at this stage in the season how his squad can find more consistency.

"As I've said before, we don't really change much in our prep at all," he said. "You're building towards that all season long, so if the players are getting better every single week, then we should be more consistent as we go along. These next couple weeks will be an indicator of that, I hope."

More on the Blue Bombers return to practice in this week's NEED TO KNOW...

OUCH REPORT: Don't read too much into the injury report at this stage of the season, as everyone is dealing with something after 16 games. That said, Tuesday's practice saw RB Brady Oliveira (ankle), SB Nic Demski (knee), LT Stanley Bryant (knee), WR Tim White (hip), WR Dorian Singer (illness), DE Nuer Gatkuoth (foot), LB Michael Ayers (calf) and DB Jaylen Smith (hip) all sit out with their various ailments.

Smith, who delivered one of the biggest hits of the CFL season in Saturday's win, has been superb this year.

"He's a good, young, smart, tough player who is eager to learn," said O'Shea of the second-year defender. "One of his biggest attributes, like a lot of the guys, is he just takes it so seriously if he thinks he's let his teammates down. It's so important for him to do it right for the guys. For young guys that are like that you've just got to lift them up every once in a while and say, 'Mistakes happen. It's football.' He's been growing all year. It's been incredible."

QUOTABLE: Blue Bombers offensive coordinator Tommy Condell on the ongoing narrative on the run and pass ratio:

"I know running the football up here solves world peace and tariffs, but the reality is this: we do want to look at the structure and if running the football does that, then we want to do that.

"... What we need to be able to do -- and I'll say this again -- is we need to be a physically violent football team and that's with the run or pass. But we have to throw to score points; we have to have the ability to throw to score points, and we need to run to win."

THE HUDDLE: We visited with Trey Vaval on our latest episode of The Huddle and the likeable ace return man-cornerback brought it with a solid interview. Check it out here: